The classic bad ass motorcycle racer thread

[Johndicezx9]

The very first 916 I ever saw in person was on Los Laurales Grade by Laguna Seca, and the guy riding it was in Chandler Cagiva leathers and very, very fast.

When I got to the parking lot on the 68 side I saw he had stopped to inspect something on the bike, and it was actually Chandler. He had just taken delivery of it. Pretty cool way to see what was then the most exotic bike on the market for the first time.

 

[SFMCjohn]

... a classic bad ass racer
is the guy who works a day job
with the dream of mixing it up
in the big races ... to me, that captures
the romance of the sport we love ...

"A man with a plan and a van ..." :laughing

John Bettencourt....

... thanks to Johndicezx9 for this pic
of one of my favorite classic BA racers ...
John Bettencourt ... privateer who won
the AMA National Superbike race at Loudon in 1978 ...

John, think you might think this is cool. It was a gift from JohnnyB to me :teeth

Boogie! arty

... it was the '70s ... :rolleyes

... thanks for the memories, John and Eric! :thumbup



... another racer with a day job:

The Rally Pan Am crew (from left to right) of Robb McElroy, Niles Follin,
Jonah Street, and Charlie Rauseo prepare for the 2010 Dakar Rally.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah_Street

Jonah Street, winner, Stage 5, 2009 Dakar ... a 5000 mile stage
race that takes place over two weeks ... :ride

 

[budman]

I interviewed Charlie Rauseo and it was in features for a while and lost on a server move. :rant

I am sure I still have the file somewhere.

Totally cool having local guys chasing their dreams. :thumbup

 

[SFMCjohn]

I interviewed Charlie Rauseo and it was in features for a while and lost on a server move. :rant

I am sure I still have the file somewhere.

Totally cool having local guys chasing their dreams. :thumbup

wow, I'd love to see that! :ride

Charlie deserves a post here as a
classic bad ass racer with a day job ... :thumbup

 

[SFMCjohn]

youtu.be/jzz-i8h4g54

... speaking of vans ... :laughing
for you Suzuki fans ...

 

[Cafe Racer]

I interviewed Charlie Rauseo and it was in features for a while and lost on a server move. :rant

I am sure I still have the file somewhere.

Totally cool having local guys chasing their dreams. :thumbup

Yeah, I met him a few times. First time was at my buddy warehouse office space where they were holding a rogue 150cc indoor race in SOMA as what I think was a fund raiser to support Charlies first Dakar race back in..... 2002? 2003?

It was then when I learned about KTM.

 

[SFMCjohn]

Yeah, I met him a few times. First time was at my buddy warehouse office space where they were holding a rogue 150cc indoor race in SOMA as what I think was a fund raiser to support Charlies first Dakar race back in..... 2002? 2003?

It was then when I learned about KTM.

:thumbup

Team Rally Pan America used to have a Jonah send
off party at the SFMC every December ... those
were the days ... :laughing

How about John Penton:

His proposal for a lightweight off-road bike was met with skepticism at KTM,
as well. As an incentive, Penton offered to put up $6,000 of his own money
if KTM would build prototypes to his specifications.

KTM agreed and in early 1968 Penton took delivery of six Penton 100cc
prototypes. He promptly entered races and put some of the
other top riders on the other bikes.

There was an immediate demand for the lightweight and inexpensive
Penton (which initially sold for $700). In the first year, more than
400 Pentons were sold.

By the time Penton sold the distributorship to KTM,
some 10 years later, more than 25,000 Penton motorcycles
had been sold in America.

His AMA HoF is a great read ... racing the Jack Pine right
after WWII, setting a coast-to-coast record on a BMW R69S,
founding the Hi Point moto gear company ...
http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.aspx?RacerID=84

1958 ...

The vision of the lighter and more nimble machine
beating the more powerful bikes at the Jack Pine
would make a lasting impression on Penton.

... I just love KTM and John Penton’s contribution
to our sport ... :gsxrgrl

1967 ... how we do it back east ... :laughingarty

1968 Penton KTM 125 Six Days ...


youtu.be/jsDLrdryBfY

... trailer for John Penton movie ...
classic bad ass racer ... :thumbup

 

[Johndicezx9]

Back at ya, John A! :thumbup

 

[budman]

... another racer with a day job:

The Rally Pan Am crew (from left to right) of Robb McElroy, Niles Follin,
Jonah Street, and Charlie Rauseo prepare for the 2010 Dakar Rally.

race that takes place over two weeks ... :ride

Found it!! Attached.

 

[budman]

Doug Polen

Suzuki Cup Privateer to factory racer Doug Polen made the journey with hard work and personal dedication. Talk about a man with a van chasing his dreams! :thumbup

Doug was a dominant national and world champion in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Polen won the Suzuki GSX-R National Cup Championship Series 750cc title in 1986 traveling the country and collecting small paychecks. He then went on to win 17 of 24 races in the World Superbike Championship Series in 1991 and won the World Superbike title by 150 points.

He also was the Japan Formula 1 and Formula 3 National Champion in 1989, AMA 600cc Supersport Champion in 1987 and 1988, AMA 750cc Supersport Champion in 1988, World Superbike Champion in 1992, AMA Superbike Champion in 1993 and World Endurance Champion in 1997 and 1998.

Doug was inducted in the AMA Hall of Fame in 2011.

 

[budman]

Scott Russell - Mr. Daytona

Russell, known as "Mr. Daytona" won the Daytona 200 a record-setting five times. Russell won America’s most prestigious motorcycle race the Daytona 200 in 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1998. He often won in dominating fashion.

He also won the AMA Superbike Championship in 1992 and the next year triumphed in the World Superbike Championship and was runner-up in 1994 He left the series after a poor start to 1995, replacing the retired Kevin Schwantz at Suzuki in the 500 cc Grand Prix world championship. Staying with Suzuki in 1996 he finished sixth overall.

In addition, Russell tallied three AMA 750cc Supersport titles in the early 1990s, won the famous Suzuka Eight Hour endurance race with teammate Aaron Slight in 1993, and was named AMA Pro Athlete of the Year in 1992.

I got to be on the same racetrack with him in the same race that Doug Chandler won at Sears. That helmet is famous and still a classic easily identifying this guy as a bad ass.

Scott was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 2005

 

[SFMCjohn]

Found it!! Attached.

Awesome ... great write up with fun pics, Budman! :ride

... from your article, had to find out
more of Charlie’s three-day Mauritania story:
http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/S-F-racer-has-his-own-desert-storm-Dakar-Rally-2507560.php#photo-2681997

arty

... gotta have a pic of a real GSX-R ... :laughing

 

[budman]

Rodney Smith - local boy makes good

Rodney Smith started riding motorcycles in the hills of Northern California with his family in the 1960s and ‘70s. Smith was a local motocross standout and while we did not race against each other I had the pleasure of watching him and Rick Ryan going head to head at Baylands Raceway, when I was a novice and intermediate. I caught more than a little roost from Smith when practicing.. :laughing

Smith accepted an offer to race in Brazil in 1985, winning five Brazilian national championships. On the world level he finished third in the 1988 in the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme 250cc World Motocross Championships.

In 1990 Smith turned his focus to off-road racing back in the States, where he became one of the most dominant riders of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Smith won 13 AMA-sanctioned national championship series, including five Grand National Cross Country titles, three AMA National Hare Scrambles titles and five AMA National Reliability Enduro Championships. He also excelled in the International Six Days Enduro, winning multiple gold medals, competing on the premier U.S. Trophy Team and twice earning top-American honors. Smith is a member of the AMA HOF and will remain a great memory for me of seeing what a top level rider was like and how far I was from that. :laughing

Where is he now?

 

[budman]

Freddie Spencer AKA: "Fast Freddie," is one of the greatest road racers that America ever produced.

Freddie was the youngest rider ever to win an AMA Superbike race in 1979 (age 18) and had the longest span between AMA Superbike victories.

He was the only rider to win three major races during Bike Week at Daytona International Speedway (the Superbike, Formula One and International Lightweight races in 1985). Until MM came along, he the youngest rider to win the 500cc Grand Prix World Championship (at 21).

Spencer won three world championships and was the only rider ever to win the 250cc and 500cc Grand Prix World Championships in the same season (1985). A bad ass season for sure.

Freddie raced in the GP's when the USA had several top riders on the grid. His battles with the King were epic and will remain about as awesome as any of my GP memories.

Freddie was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 1999.

Fast Freddie :hail

 

[SFMCjohn]

...’nother pic of Mr Spencer
and the mighty 1985 Honda NSR250 ... :ride

... check out the wheels ... :thumbup

The 250 cc class world championship was won 11 times by riders riding the Honda RS250RW and NSR250: Freddie Spencer (1985), Anton Mang (1987), Sito Pons (1988, 1989), Luca Cadalora (1991, 1992), Max Biaggi (1997), Daijiro Katoh (2001), Dani Pedrosa (2004, 2005) and Hiroshi Aoyama (2009).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_NSR250

... it’s fun to read about how
he and his AMA HoF tuner, Mr. Erv Kanemoto,
practiced with both bikes to prepare for the ‘85 double champ attempt ...
they would go out in back-to-back practice sessions
and Mr Spencer would debrief on both
bikes afterwards because “that’s how we’d have
to do it at the races” ... :cool

 

[Johndicezx9]

He was selling the '85 250 & 500 bikes a while back, anyone know where they landed?

Fast Freddie :hail

That is seriously Spencer at his finest....

 

[Blankpage]

Freddie consistently dominated his competition. He was the greatest American racer and possibly the GOAT. My favorite racer by a mile.

 

[SFMCjohn]

... another couple of AMA Hall of Fame-ers with day jobs,
in this case running Cycle Magazine ... :thumbup

Superbike Victory Circle, Daytona 1977, with Cycle Magazine's "Old Blue" Ducati SS project racer in pride of place, racer Cook Neilson and tuner/friend/fellow editor Phil Schilling looking slightly surprised by it all. The late Dave Emde is at left and Wes Cooley is on the right.

The magical prose fostered by Cook and Phil was a high-water mark for motorcycle journalism. Even now, the mention of Cycle “back in the day” is enough to start an entire evening’s conversation about how Cycle Magazine changed lives, finances, even relationships, so powerful was its song to those who loved life on two wheels.

What of Cook’s riding skills?
After all, he was pretty much a
hobby racer with a motorcycle magazine
to produce each month

At Daytona, Cook was a lone wolf among the best developed production motorcycles on sale in the U.S., as the final top 10 placings at Daytona show, with Cook coming in first followed by David Emde (Kawasaki), Wes Cooley (Kawasaki), Reg Pridmore (BMW), Mike Baldwin (Moto Guzzi), John Bettencourt (Kawasaki), Kurt Liebmann (Moto Guzzi), Dan Sorenson (Kawasaki), Keith Code (Kawasaki) and Will Harding (Kawasaki).

But he never could have done it alone. With Phil at his side, of the 39 races Cook started, he had 20 wins

Old Blue

Old Blue featured many one-off parts produced by California’s hot rod culture and was an enigma to all except the two men who had built it.

For example, its close-ratio gearbox had been commissioned from Webster Gears, a race car transmission specialist. Its cost? $1,400, about the same as a new Honda Four motorcycle of the day.

Airflow genius Jerry Branch and dyno expert C.R. Axtell had also been involved. But it was the hundreds of hours of painstaking research and development by Phil and Cook that had brought them to where they were on this day in 1977

Phil Schilling‘s AMA HoF:
http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.aspx?RacerID=448

Cook Neilson’s AMA HoF:
http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.aspx?RacerID=379

Old Blue: The Daytona-Winning Ducati on Motorcycle Classics,
the spiritual successor to Cycle ...

 

[budman]

So awesome. :applause

Cycle was awesome. Every issue read cover to cover.

Mr. Cook, you and your buds made this happen - way to go!
An epic time lived well - way to go :thumbup

Way to go.

 

[Johndicezx9]

Cycle, Cycle Week, Motorcyclist, Cycle Guide... all on my reading list during the easy credit A/V Aid/Library period in high school.